In the big-time wrestling program, Randy Poffo is billed as "volatile and venomous." But the 6'1" California beach-boy type, says he is anything but that.

"They just needed something to write in a hurry," the newcomer to Toledo said.

Poffo, who is originally from Downers Grove, Ill., has now settled in Toledo on Alexis road, with his family. His father, Angelo, and his brother, Lanny are also professional wrestlers.

Poffo claims to be the only professional baseball player turned professional wrestler.

The transition has not been easy. he has had to go into an intensive retraining program, which includes strenuous, daily workouts -- changing his baseball arms to atlas arms.

Poffo largely played the position of catcher, with farm teams of the St. Louis cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and the Chicago White Sox.

In the four years he played in the minor leagues, his determination kept him alive.

However, with a reduction in the minor league teams, he feels that his stint is up in the baseball world, and he should look to something else.

So he turned to wrestling, since it is a "relative thing."

Poffo contends he does not fit the professional wrestler image.

"I showed up at my promoter's in cut-off jeans, and everybody else was wearing trunks. there I was just off the beaches of Florida and they wanted me to wear wrestling trunks," Poffo said, adding that "a need for a gimmick was stressed."

Yet, Poffo told his promoter, he could not be anything that he really wasn't, and his image remained intact.

"I guess if I have a gimmick, it's that I have no gimmick."

He takes his wrestling seriously as he has all his athletic endeavors. yet, he holds little or no contempt for the likes of the sheik who puts on a floor show for the fans.

But for Poffo, who stresses a need to be himself, not much flashiness will be apparent when he plays at the sports arena on July 6.

"I work hard at the sport, it is a full-time job for me," he said.

And if his efforts work as they did in baseball, he may manage to tread water.